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I’ve been trying
to think of what these remarkable sentences have in common. In other words, how
do you create a surrealist proverb? First of all, the verbs are almost all
imperatives or commands: put, write, sing,
speak, etc. Proverbs often take this form: “Waste not, want not,” for
instance. Breton and Eluard’s sentences frequently involve a jagged
juxtaposition of opposites, as in “Adjust your gait to that of the storms.”
Clearly, storms don’t really have a gait, so the authors have fused together
two terms that normally aren’t combined, one of the key techniques of
surrealism. The authors also assume a tone as if they are speaking the obvious—pure
common sense—but what they say is only meaningful in the most Daffy Duck way:
“Never wait for yourself.” Literally, we can’t wait for ourselves, but
figuratively, we do that all the time, afraid to keep pace with our desires and
impulses.

So, how would
you go about writing a surrealist proverb? Some of these statements begin with
a phrase that is perfectly logical: “Never wait for…” or “Sing…” or “Write
the…” Start off with a phrase or structure that could have a rational outcome, but then twist the sentence into a
Moebius strip that ends up somewhere completely unexpected.

Don’t think too
much about how the sentence is going to turn out. Allow the surrealist
spontaneity of your fingers to outpace your rational mind. Make a fanning
generalization about something incredibly pinpoint.

Begin with
what seems like a rational structure, something a “wise” elder would tell a
young whippersnapper, and then suddenly flip it the way a flying saucer moves
after take off, right as it hits warp speed.

Here are a couple of my own takes
on this form:

Be the writer
your fingers want to be.

Take no chances,
and you will taste no clouds.

Promote asymmetry
in all that you touch.

I think you
could also alter this form slightly and make the sentence a question. Instead of a
surrealist proverb, a surrealist koan:

What role will
you play in the inevitable fireworks?If you'd like to leave your own surrealist proverb here, please add it as a comment.

Zack Rogow is the cotranslator of André Breton’s Earthlight, selected poems from the first half of his career, reprinted in a bilingual edition by Black Widow Press. He also translated Breton’s Arcanum 17.